GLOBAL WARMING LAWSUIT HORNETS NEST – The Greens are seeing red three days after the Obama administration sided with electric utilities on a Supreme Court cert petition on a case that could allow lawsuits against coal plants for CO2 emissions. Morning Energy hears the environmentalists feel this is the exactly the kind of thing that wasn't supposed to happen with the Democrats in power and the White House is getting an earful.

CRUEL SUMMER – The SCOTUS brief comes at the end of a summer environmentalists would like to forget. To review: the BP oil spill dumped 4.9 million barrels of oil in the Gulf of Mexico. The cap-and-trade bill fell apart. The Gulf spill bill still may not happen. The GOP and climate skeptics appear set to make electoral inroads. NOAA says 2010 has set the warmest year-to-date global temps on record. And there are major fires in Russia and floods in Pakistan.

OIL TALKER: TIME FOR BAN TO GO? – The Bipartisan Policy Center stirred the pot with its report Thursday to Obama's spill commission saying the president's moratorium on drilling is no longer necessary due to new Interior Dept. rules. The report notes that industry must follow the rules and that Interior enforcement and oversight is essential. Docs: http://bit.ly/aWdiTZ

MMS PROBE ON DECK? – POLITICO’s Glenn Thrush ticks down the possible inquiries from a Republican-controlled House. The former Minerals Management Service makes the cut.

** A message from America’s Natural Gas Alliance: Natural gas is helping small businesses grow across the country, meaning more jobs for hard-working Americans. See how natural gas production in Texas has helped Mindy’s family trucking business. http://www.anga.us/media-room/videos/hear-our-voices **

“BROWNIE” VISITS BOURBON STREET – Former FEMA Director Michael Brown visits New Orleans on the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Brown: “I don’t know where this is gutsy. This is a part of my life. This was a very significant part of my life. Everybody in the world knows it was a part of my life. So I’m going to show up.” NYT: http://nyti.ms/cfPN7g

JOIN THE DEBATE – Five years after Hurricane Katrina, has the federal government learned how to respond effectively to environmental disasters? Chime in over at POLITICO’s Energy Arena. http://www.politico.com/arena/energy/

“From a political angle this mystifies me entirely," UCLA law prof Jonathan Zasloff tells Morning Energy, suggesting that perhaps the admin and EPA have something cooking with the utilities, similar to the emissions deal they struck behind closed doors with automakers in 2009.

NRDC climate chief David Doniger said he expected the case to be displaced when, not before, EPA regulates emissions from existing power plants. "If the real message from the administration is that we’re doing to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants they should say that," he told POLITICO. "That would be the way for the administration to recover from this surprising fumble."

DOJ SAYS EPA HAS THE POWER – A Justice Department official says it's folly to extrapolate a policy position from the legal position. "EPA and the administration have been clear what their policy is going forward on the regulations of greenhouse gas," the official said, adding that the brief makes clear that EPA is the appropriate entity to regulate greenhouse gases under 2007's Massachusetts v. EPA ruling. Here’s the brief: http://politi.co/dl4ilY

Zasloff on the administration: “They really think they know what they’re doing and they know where they want to go and don’t want some court standing in the way.”

THE STAKES – Doniger: "This case is the ultimate backstop in that if Congress doesn't deal with it, and EPA doesn't deal with it, then the courts should deal with it."

The reply brief from the states and environmental groups is due in October.

EEI'S HAPPY– Bill Fang, deputy general counsel for the Edison Electric Institute, tells the Washington Post: "The fact that they've taken this position is significant. They could have stayed silent. The fact that they've spoken out is significant, and we're happy about it."

And Dan Popeo, chairman of the Washington Legal Foundation blogs: "The President … has correctly suggested that the courts step aside on political matters such as this and allow the elected branches of government to seeks solutions."

SPOTLIGHT ON KENNEDY, SOTOMAYOR – Zasloff suggests the whole thing rests on which group of justices feels they have Anthony Kennedy on their side. Roberts, Scalia, Thomas and Alito can take the case if they want, but won't bother if they don't think they can get the fifth vote.

As for Sonia Sotomayor, the question is whether she would rescue herself. She was on the 2nd Circuit panel when it heard oral arguments, but the judges on the court said specifically that she wasn't involved in the actual decision, the law prof says.

CUCCINELLI LAWSUIT RULING COMING SOON – Expected any day now is the ruling from a Virginia judge on AG Ken Cuccinelli’s request that UVA release information on grant applications from climate scientist and “hockey stick” author Michael Mann. Cuccinelli, a climate skeptic, is pursuing the “Climategate” thread on whether Mann (a former UVA prof) manipulated data to show a rapid rise in global temps. Several investigations of the e-mail flap and Mann’s Penn State research have turned up nada.

IPCC REVIEW DUE MONDAY – A group of science academies from around the world will present its review of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change procedures on Monday. The InterAcademy Council study was launched after errors were found in the IPCC's 2007 effort. The IPCC, of course, gets criticized from both sides – some say its consensus product is too conservative while skeptics are, well, skeptical of the entire enterprise and the use of non peer-reviewed reports.

Expect the IAC report to reaffirm the use of reports by governments, private companies and non-governmental organizations that have not been formally peer-reviewed, says Peter Frumhoff of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

SORRY, PACHAURI – An independent review of IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri’s finances found no evidence he benefited financially from his various advisory roles that would have led to a conflict of interest. Pachauri, who is not paid for his IPCC work, came under pressure to quit after the allegations arose he made millions of dollars from those advisory roles as well as the fallout from the 2007 report errors.

The Sunday Telegraph, which ran the original story accusing Pachauri in December, has removed that piece from its website and apologized. Guardian: http://bit.ly/98m9AJ

NOT QUITE SUN CITY – Four acts have refused to perform at the World Equestrian Games because they refuse to play under a “clean coal” banner sponsored by Alliance Coal, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. Musical groups Reel World String Band, Kentucky Wild Horse and Randy Wilson, and storyteller Octavia Sexton will no longer be appearing. "I could not in good conscience allow myself to be used as an advertisement for an industry that has bought and corrupted our legislature and consistently blocked all efforts by our state to move ahead on sustainable energy," said John Harrod of Kentucky Wild Horse. (h/t Melissa Waage) http://bit.ly/bvanUy

SAGEBRUSH REBELLION – Don’t expect to hear kind words about the federal government and the Interior Department if you’re in Salt Lake City tomorrow and run across the “Take Back Utah” rally. Organizers are hoping to attract 10,000 supporters, including Gov. Gary Herbert and Rep. Rob Bishop, chairman of the Congressional Western Caucus, as they rally against federal land use policy. Deseret News: http://bit.ly/cSTUyE

AL GORE VS. BIG OIL – Yankees-Red Sox? Duke-North Carolina? Army-Navy? Those rivalries have nothing on this one: Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection vs. the Oil Barons in the Congressional Softball League. "Big Oil specifically asked for the match-up at the start of the season, and while outspent and with perhaps a lesser record, the Lions from the Alliance trounced the Oil Barons 27 to 14 in six rather non-sweaty innings on the Mall," our correspondent from Gore's group reports. No truth to the suggestion that the Supreme Court overturned the result.

** A message from America’s Natural Gas Alliance: One solution for more abundant domestic energy is staring us in the face. Natural gas is the natural choice—now and in the future. We know we need to use cleaner, American energy. And, we have it. Today, the U.S. has more natural gas than Saudi Arabia has oil, giving us generations of this clean, domestic energy source. Natural gas supports 2.8 million American jobs, most states are now home to more than 10,000 natural gas jobs. As Congress and the Administration look for ways toward a cleaner tomorrow, the answer is right here: natural gas. Learn more at www.anga.us . And, follow us on Twitter @angaus. **

About The Author

Dan Berman is the money and politics editor for POLITICO.

Berman was previously a deputy managing editor and energy editor for POLITICO Pro.

Before joining POLITICO in July 2010, Berman was the editor of E&E Publishing’s Environment & Energy Daily. His prior experience also includes covering the Interior Department and energy policy as a senior reporter for Greenwire and editing Land Letter.

Berman caught the political reporting bug with Children’s Express, covering the 1996 Republican National Convention in his native San Diego. He has a bachelor's degree in political science from Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.